Rhiannon is our second artist as part of the Blast Theory and Brighton Digital Festival Residency.
As an interdisciplinary artist with a performance background, Rhiannon makes work under the lifelong series title Instructions for Empathetic Living. Rhiannon will be developing ‘The Slow GIF Movement’ during her residency with us.
Speaking in advance of beginning her residency, she shares:
‘Over the last few years I have been concerned with intervention in public space, where public space can refer both to city streets and online environments. In The Slow GIF Movement I will bring mine and others’ lived experience of neurodivergence and invisible disability to an understanding of how GIF culture is currently increasing the hostility of online space. We will take the ubiquitous, flashing, momentary imagery of a GIF and reimagine it as slow, durational, peaceful artworks, made using technology that is accessible to the general public. These GIFs are offered as a public health intervention in the online world: the act of making and sharing them becomes an intervention in the environment, an act of solidarity, and a way to disseminate a collection of art works.
I am excited to begin work on this project with dedicated time at 20 Wellington Road and the support of Blast Theory artists, and I look forward to immersing myself in the Brighton Digital Festival when it begins on 13 September!’
Image: The Lullaby Directory by Rhiannon Armstrong at The Yard Theatre, London. Window 4 (2011) by Nicolas Sassoon can be seen in the background. Photo by Ben Gregory.
